Wednesday, April 27, 2011

President Obama on Wednesday posted online a copy of his “long-form” birth certificate from the state of Hawaii, hoping to finally end a long-simmering conspiracy theory among some conservatives who asserted that he was not born in the United States and was not a legitimate president.

“The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country,” Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, wrote on the Web site Wednesday morning. Mr. Pfeiffer said on the site that Mr. Obama had authorized officials in Hawaii to release the document broadly.

In a statement to the news media Wednesday morning, Mr. Obama said he decided to release the document in an effort to end the “silliness” about his birth that threatened to distract from the serious issues facing the country.

“Over the last two and a half years, I have watched with bemusement,” he said in brief remarks. “I’ve been puzzled by the degree to which this thing just kept on going.”

Mr. Obama said there would be a “segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.” [...]

Kerners are go!

So, which do you think there will be more of, wingnuts claiming this is faked, or Very Serious People wingnuts saying all the Birfer nonsense could have been avoided if only Obama had …

You're right about that "Obama gave in" group. I've seen a couple of those stories with that idea floated already.

In some ways, I have to admit that I wish he had said nothing about this for a while longer. It was pretty fun watching the Republican Party scrambling to try to contain something they'd previously encouraged. But as far as responsible leadership goes, he's probably right to think it's worth trying to put an end to it now.